Magnavox DVD-400AT
Little is documented about the Magnavox DVD-400AT. Almost all of it comes from a three-player DVD group test in HiFI-Stereo (November 1997, p.90), which put the Magnavox up against the JVC XV-1000 and Samsung DVD905. The reviewer found the disc handling and transport quick and reliable. CD playback came out about on par with entry-level CD players (p.94). The player handled both DVD and CD and had a parental-lockout function. It could not play CD-R or Video CD discs, which is a little odd, since Philips, the parent of the Magnavox brand, had developed the Video CD format. The on-screen menus were hard to read at first. Primary controls were set apart mainly by a different background color, though the reviewer eventually learned his way around.
The same review shows how early this was in DVD's life. More than 200,000 DVD players had been sold in the U.S. at the time, and a few hundred movie titles were expected in time for Christmas. Some large retailers had already cut movie-disc prices from $24.95 to $19.95 (p.86). Video test-pattern measurements (p.96) were taken over the composite-video output, and the magazine judged artifacts only rarely visible to alert viewers. Beyond that November 1997 review, almost nothing else about the DVD-400AT appears to be documented. No production dates, original price or full specification sheet have surfaced.
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